-: Hi there, My name is Alice Faye Duncan,
and I am the author of Yellow Dog Blues.
The illustrator is Caldecott winner, Chris Raschka.
Today, I want to speak with you
about three things that you can do
to make Yellow Dog Blues
a fun and engaging experience for your students.
Number one, because Yellow Dog Blues is about
Mississippi Delta blues music,
I wanna suggest that you share with your students
three of my favorite Mississippi Delta blues musicians.
They are John Lee Hooker and his song, Boogie Children,
KoKo Taylor, and her song, Wang Dang Doodle,
and then there is Furry Lewis,
and a song with one of my favorite titles in the world,
and that is Turn Your Money Green.
A second activity that you can do is
because Yellow Dog Blues takes place
in the Mississippi Delta, you know, the story, the plot,
is where Bo Willie, his dog runs away,
and the dog runs, starting in Cleveland, Mississippi,
where they live along Highway 61.
The dog runs from Cleveland, Mississippi
in search of blues music.
So the dog runs all the way up to Memphis
to famous Bill Street, right?
So what you all can do is you can take a map of Mississippi,
you and your students referencing the book,
you can then follow the different landmarks and stops
that Bo Willie and his yellow dog make
as they're making their way up to Bill Street
and Memphis, Tennessee.
It's sort of like taking a trip for free
because you don't need gas money.
And then the third thing that you can do
to make this a fun experience is you can share with students
talk about Mississippi cuisine.
And one of the most favorite popular items
of Mississippi cuisine is hot tamales.
Now what's interesting about Mississippi hot tamales
is that they are not the same as Mexican hot tamales,
but you don't have Mississippi hot tamales
without Mexican hot tamales.
And what do I mean by that?
I mean that to create the Mississippi hot tamale,
Mexican migrant workers came to Mississippi
and they interacted in community with black share croppers.
The black share croppers took the recipe
that they received from the Mexican migrant workers,
and then they made something new, all their own.
So the interesting conversation you can have with kids is
talk about how two different cultures come together
to make something really wonderful and marvelous,
called the Mississippi hot tamale.
And so those are my three suggestions,
the way to enhance and edify students during their study
or their reading of Yellow Dog Blues,
is to number one, share with them Mississippi blues music.
Number two, share with them a map activity,
allowing them to travel for free with no gas money.
And then number three,
sharing with them Mississippi cuisine,
discussing how two cultures come together
to make something that is fun, fantastic and marvelous,
like the Mississippi hot tamale.
So I hope these suggestions work for you.
I am Alice Faye Duncan, the author of Yellow Dog Blues,
and I am wishing you a wonderful,
super duper fantastic school.